On The Record – The Menzingers

The Menzingers release their fifth album ‘After The Party‘ today via Epitaph and jump straight into their first Australian headline tour next week!

‘After The Party‘ will follow up 2014’s ‘Rented World‘.

“We spent our 20s living in a rowdy kind of way, and now we’re at a point where it seems like everyone in our lives is moving in different directions. We’re turning 30 now, and there’s this idea that that’s when real life comes on. In a way this album is us saying, ‘We don’t have to grow up or get boring—we can keep on having a good time doing what we love.“

In the making of ‘After the Party‘, The Menzingers also returned to longtime influences like The Clash, who were key to carving out their sound in the band’s early days.

Formed in 2006, they made their debut with 2007’s ‘A Lesson in the Abuse of Information Technology‘ and relocated to Philly in 2008. Over the years, the band steadily built up a devoted fanbase and-in 2012-saw their highly acclaimed Epitaph debut ‘On The Impossible Past‘ voted Album of the Year by numberous publications. In 2014 they put out their fourth album ‘Rented World‘.

Having previously played Soundwave and shared the stage on tours with Pennywise and The Smith Street Band this will be The Menzingers first Australian headline tour.

We caught up with Greg from the band to answer our On The Record questions telling us a little more about the album. Check out his answers below.

Remind yourself of the Australian tour dates below the interview.

LISTEN

INTERVIEW

Tell us about the release title. We discussed prior to writing that we wanted to have the album named after a song that summed up the various themes and ideas that we were going to create. What that was exactly we weren’t sure at the time, but we knew we wanted a cohesive theme and story to the record that was uniquely ours. We let that theme create itself, while diving the deepest into lyrical narratives that we ever had in the past. About four or five songs into the writing process we started fleshing out the ideas that would become the song ‘After the Party’. I think it was Eric who said, “thats it! Thats the title to the record!” after I first showed the band the chorus. Its as much of a song about falling in love as it is a love song to the last decade of our lives. It became the anchor for our writing. The four of us have somehow reached the end of our reckless 20’s and what a fucking party it was.

Tell us about the artwork. We had a couple ideas before we struck gold with what would become the album cover photograph. I was really pushing another image that portrayed the record in a different light but the other guys weren’t sold, so we went back to the drawing board. The photograph I was pushing summed up some ideas but wasn’t as universal as the next one would be. Turns out it was perfect for the Bad Catholics 7″ cover. While looking for artwork for our ‘Lookers’ 7″ I somehow stumbled across Joe Maloney’s 1980 Photograph entitled ‘White Shoes’, of a man sitting with his head in his hands in Asbury Park, NJ. Asbury Park is a city we have always had a very close connection with. We’ve played some of the best shows of our career in the city, and some of the best nights of my life were spent getting into trouble at Asbury Lanes. The photograph summed up the anxiety of the future and a carefree youth left behind. It was an obvious and unanimous choice for the cover.

What format/s will it be released on and how will it be packaged? ‘After the Party’ will be released on all dead formats by our wonderful family at Epitaph Records on February 3, 2017.

Tell us about the studio and why you chose to record there? Our new honorary 5th member and dear friend Will Yip produced After the Party over six weeks at Studio 4 in Conshohocken, PA. Will has worked with almost every one of our friends bands and came highly recommended by literally everyone in the music industry. For good reason! Working with Will was the best decision we could have made in having him help us create this. He breathed life into these songs like no one else could, and broke us out of the habits we’ve been begrudgingly holding on to for the last 10 years. There were points when we felt like we were recording our first record and others when we’ve never felt more comfortable. What an incredible ride it was. And holy shit does he work hard. 6 days a week?! 12 hour days?! Thank God for that little basketball hoop in the lounge room.

Did you go into the writing process with a clear direction in mind? The four of us talked extensively about what we wanted before we went into the writing and recording process. We also talked to Will a lot about what we wanted before we started tracking as well. We’re pretty savvy at recording ourselves and sent him a lot of demos before hand, sometimes 5 or 6 versions of a single song. I’m pretty sure Will said we were one of the most prepared bands he’s ever worked with, which is a huge compliment! I can sum that up to us being stubborn perfectionists.

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Were you listening to anything in particular during the writing / recording process that influenced the songs at all? Were there any albums you were referencing in the studio to aim for a certain type of sound production wise? The four of us listen to and consume a wide variety of music but definitely have a strong core that we all use as our backbone for songwriting. If I’m the more folk side, Tom’s more on the electronic side. If Eric’s more indie side, Joe’s more on the 311 side. We listened to a lot of Cock Sparrer and a lot of Meatloaf. Take away what you want from that.

Any particular equipment outside your usual live gear used in the process? Ah, now a question I can talk all day about! We used a large variety of vintage and modern gear while tracking this record. For amps: 1978 Marshall JMP, 1985 Marshall JCM 800, 1965 Fender Vibrolux, 1966 Fender Showman, 1970’s Vox AC15, Tophat Club Royale, Tophat Emplexador, Orange OR100. We used an extensive range of vintage and modern pedals as well. A green Russian big muff probably got the most love, followed by an original Rat pedal. I used my Strymon Flint for tremolo and reverb a bunch. Studio 4 has an old vintage Neve board that we recorded into along with the most incredible vocal mic I’ve ever used, a vintage Telefunken U47. As for bass and drums, well I was usually killing my nerves with a stiff drink at The Great American Pub or playing basketball in the other room. They used awesome gear as well.

Any memorable studio moments? The Sidekicks came to visit us during the session and that was a blast getting to hang out with them for the day. Sanders played basketball the entire time and was getting so into it that Will had to ask him to tone it back because the mic’s were picking up his dunking skills. We ate lunch at The Great American Pub every day and became pretty devoted regulars. We had our own table and we’d watch the Phillies when they played day games. Fun fact, Will has a very absurd and very expensive collection of Phillies game memorabilia.

Any additional tracks recorded that didn’t make the cut but may see the light of day sometime? We recorded two extra songs for the record that will absolutely see the light of day at some point. It was a tough call cutting those two but I’m excited to release them in some other capacity in the future.

What track/s are you most looking forward to playing live? To be completely honest I’m excited to play all of them. I like to think that means we have a great record on our hands.

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